[Peace] News notes 2005-05-15

[C. G. Estabrook]

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        Notes from last week's "global war on terrorism,"
        for the AWARE meeting, Sunday, May 15, 2005.
        (Sources provided on request; a paragraph followed
        by a bracketed source is substantially verbatim.)
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STIRRED-UP MUSLIMS AND SOOTHED AMERICANS

	In 1998 Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser to Jimmy
Carter, a liberal Democrat who was president 1977-81, gave an interview to
a French newspaper.  He said that, 6 months before the Soviet Union
invaded Afghanistan (December 26, 1979), the CIA began destabilizing the
liberal, secular, pro-Soviet Afghan government in a deliberate attempt to
get the Soviets to invade and become involved in their own costly,
Vietnam-style war. He justified these actions with the comment, "What was
more important in the world view of history? The Taliban or the fall of
the Soviet Empire? A few stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central
Europe and the end of the Cold War?" [Le Nouvel Observateur, 1/98]
	The US and Saudi Arabia give a huge amount of money (estimates
range up to $40 billion) to collect and supply the most fanatical
religious zealots they could find and send them to Afghanistan.  Most of
the money was managed by Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI. [Nation,
2/15/99].  These are the origins of the Jihadist movement, which later
offered to fight with the US against Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait,
and invaded Kosovo from Albania to annoy the Serbia as they had annoyed
the Soviets.
	Today we reap the harvest of the USG policy of "stirred-up
Muslims" -- from Iraq and Afghanistan to Uzbekistan and as far as
Indonesia, and we're not handling it well.  Groups of attackers killed
several soldiers in eastern Uzbekistan on Sunday before fleeing across the
border into Kyrgyzstan, and about 500 bodies were laid out in the nearby
city of Andizhan, where troops fired on a crowd of protesters two days
earlier. [AP] The USG is not giving a color ("rose," "orange") to this
uprising, because the dictator of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, is a US ally:
Uzbekistan is a site for US rendition, where we send prisoners to be
tortured, and where there is an important US airbase.
	Afghan officials say at least four people have been killed and
many injured after police opened fire on an anti-US protest in the east of
the country. Hundreds of students rioted in the city of Jalalabad over
reports that the Koran was desecrated at the US prison camp in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba. [DN] Newsweek magazine on Sunday said it may have erred in a
May 9 report that said US interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo
Bay, and apologized to victims of deadly violence sparked by the article.
	Algeria is marking an anniversary of its own this week - 60 years
ago French troops massacred up to 45,000 Algerians who took to the streets
demanding independence. On Sunday Algeria's president called on France to
admit its part in the massacres.

[1. OCCUPATION] In Iraq, a fresh wave of suicide bombings has killed over
400 people in the past fortnight: 135 car bombs exploded in Iraq in April,
up from 69 in March. And if May continues as it has started, it could be
the worst month yet. [Guardian]
	At least seventeen US soldiers have been killed since last
Saturday -- at least 15 in combat in Iraq, mostly from explosions. Another
two died in action in Afghanistan. And the Red Crescent is warning that a
US offensive on the Syrian-border town of al-Qaim has turned the city into
a "big disaster."
	In this rapidly escalating violence, the USG is relying on the
weak reed of the administration's political fixer, SOS Rice, who has been
dispatched to Iraq, under (as they say) heavy security.  Significantly,
her first visit was not to the government that resulted from the election
forced on the US by the largely non-violent resistance of the Shi'ite
parties. Her first stop was the Kurdish-controlled area in the north --
"the mountain stronghold of Kurdish Democratic Party leader Massoud
Barzani" (AP). The reason is obvious.  Far from promoting democracy, the
USG wants nothing to do with the elements of democracy that they've been
forced to concede in Iraq. Remember that the Shi'ite majority had as a
platform plank the withdrawal of the US from Iraq, a position supported
overwhelmingly by the people of Ira, except the Kurds.  But the US will
not concede such democracy to the government it has established.
Similarly, the CIA is refusing to hand over control of Iraq's secret
police to the newly elected Iraqi government -- Knight Ridder News Agency
reports that it remains essentially an arm of the United States. The
director was picked by the Bush administration, the agency is funded by
the US government and reports directly to the CIA. In addition the US has
barred the new government from looking at the sensitive national
intelligence archives which are being stored inside the US headquarters in
Baghdad ... The US has defended the set-up saying the measures are needed
to protect Iraq's secrets from being given to neighboring Iran [DN] -- an
indication of the US idea of the Shi'ite government we have installed.
	In western Iraq, US Marines have launched what is being described
as the largest US offensive since the invasion of Fallujah. The military
claims it has already killed 100 people near the Syrian border. At least
three Marines have died in the fighting. According to the Los Angeles
Times, the Iraqi resistance has been well prepared for the US attacks.
Sandbag bunkers have been piled in front of homes. Fighters were
strategically positioned on rooftops and balconies. Residents were seen
flashing lights signaling the coming of the US troops. Attacking Marines
faced a barrage of mortars. In at least one town, Marines were involved in
house-house combat.
	The United Nations released a report saying that from the
beginning of the US invasion to Spring of 2004, some 24,000 Iraqis died
what the world body called war-related deaths. The study went to to say
that currently half of the Iraqi population has no access to clean
drinking water and that infant mortality remains among the highest in the
world, at 40 per 1,000 live births.
	The Washington Post reports the US plans to build more prisons in
Iraq to accommodate the surging number of detainees. The US is now holding
just over 11,000 prisoners -- twice the number it was holding six months
ago. The US plans to spend $50 million to expand three existing prison
facilities and open a fourth. [DN]
	The New York Times reports signals from Sunni leaders in Iraq that
some insurgents may be willing to lay down their weapons in return for a
more central place in the development of the country's government,
including the writing of the constitution. [Slate]

[2. CONGRESS] At home, the USG and its allies in the corporate media
attempt to make the war go away, at lest as far as the consciousness of
the US public is concerned. And in this their aide by their supposed
opposition, the feckless Democrats, who are going all out to make you
believe that some important opposition is going on in over rules in the
Senate and confirmation of presidential nominees, but it isn't: there will
be no substantial change in USG policy, because the Democrats don't really
oppose it.  This week Hillary Clinton sent a fund-raising letter to
liberal supporters, asking them to rank the ten most important issues
facing the country, chosen from a list of possibilities.  The war in Iraq
and Iran was not on the list.
	The press reports "'Mass Hysteria' For Hillary Clinton At Commence
Day Speech" at a women's liberal arts college in Decatur, GA. Clinton said
she is "very proud of our country" for standing with the women of Iraq and
Afghanistan. She said it is "absolutely essential to our national security
and the furtherance of peace and democracy around the world" for that
commitment to continue. She said she hopes more young women will
"contribute to that great struggle abroad."
	The House of Representatives gets into the act of ignoring the war
this week, too. While the LAT runs a front-page feature on a street gang
with Central American roots, Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. The gang was
started in Los Angeles in the mid-80s and has now spread to 33 states and
a half-dozen Latin American countries, boasting a membership of 30,000. So
the House passed a bill this week to impose mandatory minimum sentences
for violent crime by street gangs but rejected an attempt to amend the
criminal code to include "war profiteering and fraud" in Iraq.
	The US Army said on Tuesday it had awarded $72 million in bonuses
to Halliburton Co. for logistics work. The company has raked in well over
$7 billion under its 2001 logistics contract with the US military.
	As usual, we're talking up crime in the streets but maintain a
discreet silence about crime in the suites of Halliburton and Bechtel.
	Insofar as they're not trying to avoid the subject of the war, the
Congress is attempting to affix blame on foreigners. A US Senate committee
said on Thursday British parliamentarian George Galloway and former French
Interior Minister Charles Pasqua benefited from the U.N. oil-for-food
program for Iraq, a charge both men denied ... "This is a lickspittle
Republican committee acting on the wishes of George W. Bush," said
Galloway ... Five months ago, Galloway won 150,000 pounds ($280,000) in
libel damages from a newspaper that had made similar allegations on the
basis of purported Iraqi Foreign Ministry documents. Charles Duelfer, in
an extensive report in October, found corruption in the $64 billion U.N.
oil-for-food program amounted to some $1.7 billion. But he said Saddam
made most of his money, another $8 billion, through covert oil exports.
[Reuters] UN officials said the US and Britain, both members of the
security council, were aware of illicit trade in oil to Iraq's neighbours,
Jordan, Turkey and Syria, but opted to turn a blind eye to it. [Guardian].
Galloway will confront a US Senate committee in Washington next week.
	Congress officially approved more than $80 billion in additional
funding for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, boosting the cost of
the so-called war on terror to more than $300 billion since 2001. The
Senate approved the measure by a 100-0 vote. The House approved the
measure last week. It now goes to President Bush for his signature, which
is guaranteed. The legislation represents the fifth such emergency
spending package Congress has taken up since September 2001. It also
includes sweeping immigration changes, a nearly tenfold increase in the
one-time payment for families of troops killed in combat, and money to
build the largest embassy in the world in Iraq. But most of the money --
more than $70 billion -- goes to the military. [DN]
	Attached to the spending bill was a highly controversial provision
on National Identification Cards. Critics blasted the Republicans for
tagging it on to the legislation and say that it is unconstitutional and
anti-immigrant. The measure requires states to start issuing more uniform
driver's licenses and verify the citizenship or legal status of people
getting them. It also toughens asylum laws, authorizes the completion of a
fence across the California-Mexican border and provides money to hire more
border security agents. Critics say the legislation also encourages bounty
hunters to hunt undocumented immigrants and makes asylum seekers get proof
from their own government that they are being persecuted. Groups opposing
the bill run the gamut of the political spectrum, from the ACLU to Gun
Owners of America. [DN]

[3. COURTS] In New York a 16-year-old girl -- who the government accused
of being a would-be suicide bomber -- has returned to her high school in
East Harlem. Six weeks ago federal officials detained two 16-year-old
girls -- one from Guinea and one from Bangladesh. At the time the
government claimed they were a "imminent threat to the security of the
United States." For six weeks the government said little about their
detentions despite a public outcry. The case was cloaked in secrecy.
Hearings were closed to the public. FBI comments were sealed. And
attorneys were barred from disclosing government information. But it now
appears the government had no case at all and that the girls posed no
threat. The New York Times reports the government released the girl from
Guinea and she returned to school on Friday. Meanwhile the Bangladeshi
girl remains in detention - but for immigration reasons, not national
security. An immigration judge has ordered her and her parents to be
deported.
	A federal court of appeals has agreed with the Bush administration
that a suit by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds should not proceed
because it could expose national secrets and jeopardize national security.
In her suit, Edmonds accused the FBI of firing her after she complained
about security breaches within the agency.

[4. MILITARY] The US Army announced it will halt its recruiting efforts
for one day this month amid widespread national protest and several
scandals. The military says the halt is aimed at re-training recruiters.
The stand-down will take place May 20 and will affect almost all 7,500
recruiters at 1,700 stations around the United States. The military is
currently facing a major crisis in recruitment with rates plummeting in
the face of the Iraq occupation and other military operations globally.

[5. MEDIA] ABC News's "The Note" reports quite candidly this week, "What
is hands down the biggest story every day in the world [viz., the truly
staggering death and carnage in Iraq] will get almost no coverage" --
because, they say, "cable news networks gotta find a way to fill a lot of
programming hours as cheaply as possible..."

[6. TORTURE] Amnesty International reported on Friday -- to almost uniform
silence by the media -- that prisoners detained by the United States in
Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere are still at risk of
torture and ill-treatment.
	Lawyers for an American student charged with conspiring to kill
President Bush say that Saudi officials tortured the student "at the
direct behest" of the FBI, whose agents did nothing to stop the abuse.
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali's legal team filed motions this week saying the 24-year
old was tortured while FBI agents were in Saudi Arabia to interview him in
September 2003. They said the abuse came at the hands of the Saudi
equivalent of the FBI. When Abu Ali complained to a US FBI agent, the
agent reportedly stormed out of the room. The lawyers said Abu Ali was
beaten, whipped and subjected to what they called "the most sadistic forms
of psychological torture." Defense attorneys have long argued that Abu Ali
was tortured while in Saudi custody before being flown back to the United
States to face terrorism charges in February. The government says Abu Ali
confessed to the assassination plot against Bush. He insists he is
innocent. Abu Ali's trial is scheduled for Aug. 22. [DN]
	More details are emerging on what exactly is contained in that
controversial $80 billion military spending bill passed by Congress this
week. In a little-noticed provision, Congress bans the government from
using any money in the bill to subject anyone in US custody to torture or
"cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" that is forbidden by the
Constitution. Drafted since the disclosure of abuses in Afghanistan and
Iraq and at Guantánamo Prison Camp in Cuba, it lays out a definition of
illegal treatment that human rights groups say is broader than the Bush
administration's current interpretation, and links the ban directly to
military spending. The measure draws no distinction between US citizens
and foreign prisoners, placing it at odds with statements of Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales who said foreign prisoners had very few rights.
[DN]
	Connecticut carried out its first execution in 45 years early
today, killing Michael Bruce Ross through lethal injection. Ross was a
convicted serial killer who abandoned his appeals after 18 years on death
row. [DN] The execution seems like a state-assisted suicide.

[7. LOOTING] Real wages in the US are falling at their fastest rate in 14
years. Inflation rose 3.1 per cent in the year to March but salaries
climbed just 2.4 per cent, according to the Employment Cost Index. In the
final three months of 2004, real wages fell by 0.9 per cent. [FT] The last
time salaries fell this steeply was at the start of 1991, the recession
that brought Clinton I to office.
	Interestingly, the major papers, while not making much of this
outside of the business pages, decide that they'd better set people
straight on the usually unmentionable topic of class in America. The WSJ
reports flat-footedly that the gap between rich and poor continues to
widen in the us while class mobility stalls; those in bottom rung enjoy
better odds in Europe. And the NYT, gingerly and lugubriously, offers
today the first of a THREE-WEEK series on class in America.
	This "overviews" installment grapples with definition of class:
"Classes are groups of people of similar economic and social position;
people who, for that reason, may share political attitudes, lifestyles,
consumption patterns, cultural interests and opportunities to get ahead."
Among many other things, the article notes that inter-class mobility has
been decreasing for 30 years -- the poor tend to stay poor and the rich,
rich. It's hard not to see the Times' series as an attempt to defuse the
issue with enough appropriate right thinking about the ineluctable
modalities of the economy...
	A US appeals court has thrown out a lawsuit against Vice President
Dick Cheney. The suit sought details about Vice President Dick Cheney's
2001 energy policy task force that formed policy favorable to the
industry. The unanimous ruling ordered a federal judge to dismiss the
lawsuit by the Sierra Club environmental group and the watch group
Judicial Watch. The dismissal of the case had been expected after a US
Supreme Court ruling in June last year that refused to require that task
force records be disclosed. It sent the case back to the appeals court.
	The International Labour Organization is reporting that over 12
million people worldwide now live in modern slavery. Of those, one-fifth
are trafficked, generating profits of over $30 billion. While the largest
numbers are in poor Asian countries and in Latin America, more than
350,000 enslaved people are living in industrialized nations.

[8. AFGHANISTAN] A spokesperson for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar
says the cleric would reject any offer of amnesty from the Afghan
government. This came in response to the head of Afghanistan's
reconciliation commission calling for Mullah Omar and other senior Taliban
leaders to be included in a broader amnesty. The Taliban spokesperson said
that on Omar's orders resistance fighters have increased attacks on US
forces in recent weeks and will continue these attacks.
	Women's rights groups have been staging rallies in Kabul following
the murder of three young Afghan women. The women were found last week
dumped on a roadside -- they had been raped and hanged. A note found with
the bodies said they were killed for working for international aid groups.

[9. IRAQ] King Abdullah of Jordan has agreed to pardon Iraqi politician
and onetime CIA asset Ahmed Chalabi. For years, Chalabi has faced a 22
year prison sentence in Jordan for fraud after his Petra bank collapsed in
1989 with more than $300million in missing deposits. Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani asked the king to resolve the differences between Jordan and
Chalabi during a visit to Amman this week.
	Meanwhile several former Iraqi officials who served under prime
minister Iyad Allawi are reported to be fleeing the country. According to
the Independent of London, they are leaving to escape possible prosecution
for corruption and for their personal safety.

[10. ISRAEL] Israeli artillery and aircraft pounded the outskirts of
Lebanese border villages on Friday in a fierce clash with Hizbollah
guerrillas that ratcheted up tensions on the volatile frontier. The
fighting in the disputed Shebaa Farms strip comes as Lebanon prepares to
hold its first general election without a Syrian military presence for 33
years. Israeli aircraft and artillery struck the outskirts of Lebanese
border villages near the Shebaa Farms, and further west near the towns of
Khiam and Rmeish, some distance from the disputed strip, Lebanese security
sources said.In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the
exchange of fire, the third border violation in recent days, "a worrisome
escalation" and reminded both sides "one violation cannot justify
another," chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

[11. LA] In Brazil, South American and Arab leaders are holding a historic
summit aimed, not so subtly, at reducing US power globally. Officially,
the summit is addressing economic issues but has moved quickly into some
of the most pressing international conflicts. Yesterday, the gathering
criticized the world's richest countries and Israel and gave support to
the Palestinians. In a statement, the two regions demand that Israel
disband settlements in Palestinian areas, including "those in East
Jerusalem," and retreat to its borders before the 1967 war. They also
blasted US economic sanctions against Syria and denounced terrorism. But
they assert the right of people "to resist foreign occupation in
accordance with the principles of international legality and in compliance
with international humanitarian law." At the summit in Brasilia, there are
some 9,000 soldiers, 16 heads of state and top officials from 34 South
American, Middle Eastern and North African nations. [DN]
	Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that the world is on the
brink of an energy crisis because the demand for oil continues to grow,
while OPEC production is already at its maximum. Chavez heads the world's
fifth largest crude oil exporter. He charged that the US has "built a way
of life based on the wasteful consumption of oil, which is non-renewable."
Chavez's remarks came at the end of the Latin American-Arab summit in
Brazil. [DN]
	Thousands of landless Brazilian peasants marched toward the
capital on Friday to protest against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's
slow land reforms and US plans for Americas-wide free trade. The 12,000
Landless Workers Movement (MST) activists have occupied eight ranches on
their 14-day trek from the city of Goiania and are now within 24 miles of
the capital. Protesters will target the US embassy, Brazil's central bank
and finance ministry on Tuesday in a call for "social revolution" against
Lula's market-driven economic policies and "U.S. imperialism," leaders
said. The MST is among the populist Latin American movements backing
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's alternative trade plans that counter
the US-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas. [Reuters]
	Cuban President Fidel Castro made clear this week he will not hand
over political exile Assata Shakur who has been living in Cuba since
escaping from prison in 1979. US officials put Shakur on a government
terrorist watch list this month. On the same day, New Jersey officials
announced a $1 million reward for her capture. She was convicted in 1973
of killing a New Jersey State Trooper. In a major televised address,
Castro called Shakur a victim of "the fierce repression against the Black
movement in the United States" and said she had been "a true political
prisoner." He called the charges against her "an infamous lie." Castro's
remarks were his first comment on the new US actions. Castro suggested
that the threats against Shakur were meant to divert attention from Cuba's
demand that US officials arrest Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA asset
who has admitted to carrying out acts of terrorism against Cuba. Fidel
Castro called for a massive rally on May 17 in front of the US Interests
Section to demand the arrest of Posada.
	Now to the dire situation of ousted Haitian Prime Minister Yvon
Neptune who is on day 25 of a hunger strike in a Haitian jail. The
Caribbean Community, known as CARICOM, has officially called on the
provisional Haitian government to release Neptune immediately. It is the
group's second such call in 3 months. CARICOM also called for the release
of other officials of the government of Jean Bertrand Aristide. Among them
is former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert, who recently started a
hunger strike himself. CARICOM also urged the interim government to
release several Lavalas activists. Neptune is now reported to be very near
death with a top UN official saying Neptune can barely walk or talk and is
in and out of consciousness. [DN]

[12. TURKEY] The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Turkey's
trial of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan was unfair, saying he was not
tried by an independent and impartial tribunal. Ocalan is currently
serving a life sentence as the only prisoner in a jail on a Turkish
island. In 1999, he was convicted of treason. Although the ruling is not
binding, Turkey has said it will do whatever is necessary to fulfil the
law.

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            C. G. Estabrook <www.newsfromneptune.com>
           "News from Neptune" (Saturdays 10-11AM), and
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